Early and delayed offers to under-represented university students

This paper examines the relative merits of early and delayed offer schemes in attracting under-represented students to university. Following the introduction of a demand- driven system and the establishment of national growth and equity targets, Australian universities have increased the number of offers made to students before the release of Australian Tertiary Admission Ranks. The majority of public universities now operate an early offer scheme, often explicitly to increase their proportions of traditionally under-represented students. By contrast, the University of Melbourne and the University of Western Australia have developed delayed offer schemes, whereby entry to professional courses depends primarily on achievement within a generalist undergraduate degree. Under both models, institutions seek to reduce their reliance on Australian Tertiary Admission Rank, which has been shown to be correlated with socioeconomic status. The paper considers both models with respect to their transparency, efficiency, predictive validity and equity.